Gateway Theatre’s artistic director Jovanni Sy doesn’t necessarily look like a guy who wants to shake things up—with his weather-sensible backpack, walking shoes, dad jeans—but this is a man who’s not afraid to buck convention. Consider that at the age of 24 he quit his job, defied his parents, and turned his back on his engineering degree because he fell in love with singing, dancing, and theatre.

Sy loves a risk, and since taking over the small Richmond theatre almost three years ago, he’s been slowly expanding the scope of its offerings. In part, that’s why he’s chosen to direct Valley Song, an acclaimed but also controversial work by esteemed South African playwright Athol Fugard. Sy saw Fugard himself direct and perform in the production almost 20 years ago and has carried the experience in his heart ever since.

“I just remember being moved to tears because it’s such a beautifully told story,” Sy says, sitting on a couch in Gateway’s second-floor lobby.

Valley Song focuses on three characters: the Author, a white man modelled on Fugard himself; Buks, a black grandfather who, during apartheid, was classified as “coloured” or kleurling; and his granddaughter, Veronica, who dreams of being a famous singer.

Fugard played both the Author and Buks originally, and insists that with every production the same actor play both roles. This has resulted in some criticism over whether a white actor playing both parts erases the black experience, and is yet another instance of erasure in South Africa’s racist apartheid history.

Sy is conscious of and sensitive to the criticism, but says there’s an emotional and artistic payoff to the same person playing both parts. He also says casting was open to actors of all ethnicities—he just wanted to find the best one for the part. Enter David Adams, a stage veteran originally from Cape Town, South Africa, who is mixed-race.

“Not only is he a fantastically gifted actor, he provides an authentic viewpoint of what it’s like to grow up ‘coloured’ in South Africa,” Sy says. Like Buks, Adams would have been considered kleurling during apartheid.

Valley Song is the kind of play that excites Sy: complicated and risky, but also beautiful and heartfelt. “I’m always looking for that intersection of what’s popular and what’s artistically ambitious,” he says, pointing out that with the demise of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, there’s now a gap in the local theatre scene that he hopes Gateway will fill.

Sy’s also adamant that Gateway’s programming reflect the makeup of the Lower Mainland. To start with, more than half of the directors next year will be women, and the casts will actually look, ethnically, like 21st-century Vancouver.

“Who are we serving if we don’t reflect the community we live in?” he asks, before continuing with a smile. “We haven’t announced it yet, but I can promise you, none of our four main-stage shows will feature an all-Caucasian cast. They’ll look like modern Vancouver and I’m really proud of that.”

Valley Song is a tip of the hat toward Gateway’s own future. And while the 1995 play’s roots are specific to the then-new postapartheid reality, Sy feels its themes are still relevant today.

“It’s a universal story about the nature of change and how change is always born of really tough negotiations,” he says. “I think of this community, Richmond, which is changing so rapidly, and I think of the discussions Veronica has with her grandfather and wanting to buck all tradition and go be the singer in the big city. That could be somebody like a young Asian kid in Richmond wanting to go be an actor, or that could be an East Indian kid in Vancouver telling his parents I want to pursue a different dream.’ That kind of intergenerational conflict is a timeless story.”

Sy sees aspects of his own personal journey in Valley Song, but he also relates to its South African context.

“I’m fascinated with seeing where the country was 20 years ago and a lot of the promises young Veronica has for a new country,” he says. “I’ve experienced this myself. My family is ethnically Chinese, but we’re from the Philippines. I remember going to Manila just after the People Power Revolution in ’86. I was there less than a year after that and visiting relatives, and seeing a country in a new state of hope and a new state of possibilities and everything seems limitless. We’re out with the corrupt and everything that’s possible and good can happen from this point on. I remember going back 15 years later and a lot of the early promise never transpired. But I remember what it was like.…That’s kind of where this play’s at, where everything seemed possible, and that’s really exciting to write about and for some people really scary to contemplate.”

But despite the fear associated with change and upheaval, the tenacity of hope remains.

“I think it [Valley Song] really helps me understand our responsibility to future generations; we’re not supposed to temper their dreams, we’re supposed to encourage them.”

Welcome to the Jovanni Sy era of Gateway Theatre: dream big. No, even bigger.

Valley Song is at Richmond’s Gateway Theatre from Friday (February 6) to February 21.